


A Soft Apology

by egregarious



Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Ladybug - Freeform, Short, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 11:56:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15706752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/egregarious/pseuds/egregarious
Summary: After their fight against Roman Torchwick on the docks, team RWBY is back together and closer than ever.  Or are they?  Blake still hides her ears and no one else seems willing to confront the simple truths they've learned about her but Ruby.  In an attempt to help her teammate, the young leader settles in to have a difficult conversation.





	A Soft Apology

Ruby paced up and down her team’s room, too full of nervous energy and anxiety to stay still for more than a second at a time. It had only been a few days since their fight against Roman Torchwick and the White Fang on the docks and although things were returning to normal for the team, a lot still remained unsaid, especially concerning their new knowledge about Blake. In Ruby’s mind, something that was important enough to hide from your teammates for months was something that deserved being addressed directly, which was why she had asked Blake to speak with her. It sounded like a solid plan the night before, but now that the time had come, Ruby was feeling more than a little uneasy about bringing up something that no one else seemed willing to talk about.

  
Her main concern was focused around Blake’s stark avoidance of the subject, anything even remotely related to what had happened with the White Fang or her identity as a Faunus since that night were the proverbial eggshells which everyone tiptoed around. She was even still wearing her bow to sleep at night, despite all her teammates knowing what it hid. Even Yang had been afraid to broach the topic with her partner, unwilling to force some kind of emotional closure if it was unwanted. To Ruby, this avoidance of such an important issue wasn’t helping anyone, especially not Blake. So as team leader, and as her friend, Ruby had decided that she should at least attempt a conversation.

  
Light footsteps in the hallway outside interrupted Ruby’s frantic worrying, and as they grew closer, she did her best to collect her thoughts and mentally rehearse what she had planned to say. Despite her best intentions, more than a few doubts remained about whether this was going to improve the already tense situation or make her teammate even more secluded from the rest of her friends.

  
Before Ruby could worry any further, Blake entered the room with her usual quiet confidence, a well-practiced veneer of comfort surrounding her in almost every situation, no matter how ill-at-ease she really felt. “I got your message, Ruby. There was something you wanted to talk to me about?”

  
Team RWBY’s leader shuffled awkwardly, trying her best to be more confident and poised than she felt. Despite spending all night figuring out what she wanted to say, her thoughts were a jumbled mess, not exactly the most conducive state of mind for a difficult conversation. But of course, Blake always had a way of doing that to her. “Oh, uhhhh yeah…I did…send you…that. Mmm-hmm definitely something I wanted to talk about.”

  
Blake looked at Ruby expectantly as the young red-head sighed and mentally commanded herself to focus. “Well, really talking wasn’t my intention. I mean, talking’s a part of it, definitely, so it kind of…is my intention? It’s pretty hard to do without talking actually, just not the main part of it.” She sighed again. “What I’m trying to get at is that…I need to say I’m sorry.”

  
Her teammate’s brow furrowed and she tilted her head, visually asking the obvious question.

  
“While we were on the docks the other night I called your ears ‘cute’ and looking back, it kind of seemed like I was making light of them. You hid them for so long, and I know you must have a good reason for that, and I don’t want to make that reason feel unimportant. If it’s important to you, then its important to me too. What I said was belittling and a little rude and I’m sorry. I want you to know that I respect you Blake, like a lot. You’re an amazing fighter and one of the strongest people I know, and what I said didn’t reflect that. It was the wrong word to use and I’m really, really sorry. And I know I’m kind of rambling here, but I mean it. I want you to know that.”

  
As Ruby hung her head a little and nervously waited for a reaction to her clumsy, if heartfelt apology; Blake nodded slowly, letting it stew in her mind for a moment.

  
“Ruby, I appreciate you apologizing, but I don’t think you did anything wrong. While it was a little…patronizing, my ears have been called much worse things than cute and you didn’t say it with any malice. You’re right, I do have reasons for hiding who I am that are important to me, and you saying that you respect those is enough to make up for any wrongdoing. You’re forgiven.”

  
With that, Ruby smiled; the weight that she had been carrying for the past few days lifted from her shoulders along with the not insignificant amount of tension that had built up in the room. “Thanks Blake, it’s been kind of eating me up to be honest…”

  
“Don’t worry about it, I hadn’t really thought anything of it, until just now.” A mirrored smile made its way to Blake’s lips as she added, “you do realize you’re apologizing to me for a compliment?”

  
“I know, but I want to make sure I get things right. I’m supposed to be the leader, and sometimes that means apologizing for compliments.”

  
Blake laughed, causing Ruby to stop and blink in surprise. Thinking back, she realized that this was the first time hearing her teammate laugh, a delightfully musical sound totally different from her sister’s bellicose laughter and Weiss’ aloof amusement.

  
“You have a really pretty laugh,” she said, a little wide-eyed.

  
In response, Blake raised an eyebrow, “are you going to apologize for that too?” Ruby shook her head. “Good,” she said with a smile.

  
With the conversation lapsing for a moment, Ruby had time to think about everything she had planned on saying the night before and how this was probably going to be the best time to talk about them, now that her teammate was in a good mood.

  
“Hey Blake, I wanted to talk to you so I could apologize, but there was something else as well. We haven’t really talked about what happened on the docks or anything about how you’re…what happened before that. So if you’re feeling alright, do you mind if I ask you some things about it? I just don’t want to cross a line so tell me if you’re feeling uncomfortable or if you don’t want to answer. Is that okay?”

  
Blake nodded and gestured for her to go ahead.

  
“If you don’t mind, why do you wear the bow? I mean, you seem to really care about Faunus being treated equally, and I don’t think you’re ashamed to be one. Why hide it?”

  
After a slight sigh Blake answered, “Ruby, what do you remember thinking about me when we first met?

  
“I thought you were really brave for standing up to Weiss when I ran into her…and uh, exploded. Oh, and I knew you liked books from when we met again later that night.”

  
“Exactly,” Blake replied. “You started forming opinions about me based on how I acted and what I enjoyed. If I hadn’t been wearing that bow, a lot of people would never have gotten that far; they would’ve just seen a Faunus. I want people to understand me for who I am, not what I am. Good or bad, I would prefer someone’s judgement about my character rather than two little ears.”

  
“Then why keep hiding it from us for so long?” Ruby asked, trying her best not to come across as accusatory. “We’re a team. None of us would’ve thought of you any differently just because of one more detail about you, not even Weiss.”

  
“I think it’s that closeness that kept me from saying anything. Even if there’s only a tiny chance that you would react negatively, having that come from people I care about makes it so much more difficult. Being rejected only hurts if the person rejecting you matters, and all of you matter to me.” Blake shook her head, “I’m not sure if that makes any sense…”

  
“No, I think I understand. It was sort of the same when I came out to Yang and my dad. Like, I was pretty sure they were going to be okay with it, but the thought of having my family be against me was really, really hard.”

  
“Absolutely,” Blake replied, nodding. “I hide my ears from strangers because they don’t know me, and friends because they know me too well. Kind of ironic actually.”

  
The two young huntresses sat in silence for a moment, wordlessly mewling over what had been said. Now that Ruby really thought through it, her teammate’s answer made a lot of sense. How many times had she heard someone being called ‘that Faunus’ rather than their own name? Not even mentioning the discrimination accompanying it, being thought of solely as a coincidence of birth instead of who you are as a person or what you’ve achieved in life must feel degrading like little else does.

  
After another beat of silence, Blake turned to her team leader, eyebrows raised. “Come out?”

  
“Oh, uh…yeah, I guess I never told you about that. I’m trans. Yang always likes to say I’m her ‘sister not her cis-ter’ which is…umm…ridiculous right? Aha…haaaa…haaaaaaaaaa…” Ruby answered, trying to cover her nervousness with humor.

  
“Okay,” Blake replied, lips curling upwards into a smile. “And I don’t think of you any differently for knowing that.”

  
“Thanks,” Ruby said, her nervousness forgotten as she looked at Blake’s smiling face.

  
“So, I guess the needles I found under the sink are yours? Are those hormone injections?” her teammate asked, honestly curious.

  
“Puberty Blockers actually, the hormones come in pills.”

  
“And how did your family react?”

  
“They were great actually. Let me tell you, there were a lot of hugs going on that day. Yang ordered a celebration pizza and my dad literally would _not_ stop crying and telling me how proud he was of _both_ his daughters, it was pretty nice all in all.”

  
“I’m glad,” Blake replied.

  
“I am too,” Ruby said with a thoughtful look. “You know, it’s nice to talk about this normally with someone other than my sister.”

  
Blake smiled and adjusted her bow. “I think I understand the feeling.”

  
With a loud beep, Blake’s scroll announced a text coming through which she quickly read and stood up from where she had been sitting. “It’s Yang, she’s asking for some help on the paper Professor Oobleck assigned. She never read the chapter we have to write about, so I’d better help her. It was good talking to you Ruby, I mean that.”

  
“Before you go,” Ruby said, jumping up from her chair, “I wanted to say that if you felt like it, you probably don’t need to keep wearing the bow when it’s just the four of us. I’ve seen you sleeping with it on and that cannot be comfortable.”

  
“Sure, I’ll think about it. Old habits die hard though.” Blake collected her backpack on the way to the door, but paused before leaving the room. “Oh, and by the way, Ruby,” she said, a small smile on her face, “I’m glad you like my laugh.”

  
As Blake left the room, Ruby’s cheeks reddened from her teammate’s final words. “Great job, Ruby,” she said to herself sarcastically, “now she’s making you blush too?” Despite her internal self-deprecation, the young huntress was glad at how well the conversation had gone; perhaps it would dispel some of the tension born from Blake’s admission of previously being in the White Fang, as well as make her more comfortable speaking about it openly with the rest of her team. Either way she was proud of her teammate’s strength in facing such a difficult part of her past, and simply quite happy Blake had chosen to open herself up to her team leader and friend.

  
Having every member fully trust one another and be comfortable together both on and off the battlefield would make Team RWBY all the stronger, and so Ruby hoped that this trend of Blake speaking openly and honestly with her would continue. The young Huntress sighed heavily, “and maybe she could open up without you getting a crush on her? Wouldn’t that be nice, you absolute disaster?”


End file.
